How to Watch Live TV on a Mac

Last modified: February 17, 2019

By Stephen Lovely

Here at Cordcutting.com, we don't have anything against TV — it's cable that we don't like! That's why we dedicate so much time to telling you about all of the different ways that you can watch TV without cable. We've covered the best methods for watching TV without cable on mobile devices, streaming platforms, and more. Now we're here to tell you how to watch live TV on a Mac computer.

Computers are the original streaming devices: before Netflix was streaming movies and TV shows, the internet was already streaming viral and user-made videos on sites like Ebaum's World and Facebook. Today, we can stream TV and movies on almost any device, but it still pays to know how to stream the latest and greatest TV and movies on our trusty old laptops and desktops. Below, we'll lay out all of the services and techniques that you need to know about.

How to Watch Live TV on a Mac Online and Over the Air Without Cable

If you're a regular reader of Cordcutting.com, you know that we primarily talk about two things when it comes to watching TV without cable: “skinny bundles” and free over-the-air TV.

Skinny bundles get their name from the slimmed-down channel packages that they offer, which are more cost-effective than the competing ones offered by cable and satellite companies. But the most important difference between a skinny bundle and a cable package is that a skinny bundle streams online – kind of like Netflix, only for live TV.

Since skinny bundles live online, they can help you watch live TV without cable on all sorts of devices. That includes, of course, helping you stream live TV on Mac computers. The first handful of services we'll list below will be skinny bundles.

It may be less obvious how free over-the-air TV can help Mac users, but read on and we'll explain. We'll also cover other streaming services that will give you access to certain live TV channels and broadcasts. Here's how to watch live TV on Apple computers.

DirecTV Now is a skinny bundle service that is owned by AT&T. It offers all sorts of great TV channels in its four base packages, which come at various sizes and price points (the cheapest, “Live a Little,” will cost you $40 per month). Once you have a base package in your cart, you can tack on add-ons that include premium channels like HBO and Showtime. DirecTV Now is a particularly affordable way to snag those premium networks. You can test out DirecTV Now for free by taking advantage of the service's free trial offer.

fuboTV offer two base pakages. “fubo” costs $44.99 per month, while the larger “fubo Extra” package costs $49.99 per month. Either one will make a great way to stream live TV on Mac. You can also tack on some add-on bundles and check out fuboTV's Spanish-language bundle. Click the link below to get a free week through fuboTV's free trial program.

Hulu with Live TV is the skinny bundle arm of the popular on-demand streaming service Hulu. Hulu's live offerings are pretty solid, with its basic $39.99-per-month channel bundle (Hulu with Live TV's price will go up to $44.99 per month in late February of 2019) featuring a host of familiar channels like ABC and ESPN. A Hulu with Live TV subscription will also net you access to all of Hulu's on-demand content. You can try out Hulu with Live TV for free by signing up for the free trial via the link below.

If you want to watch live TV on the cheap, Philo is a fantastic option. The service's goal is to make the most affordable skinny bundle possible, and it succeeds admirably. The trick with Philo is that it sheds the local channels and sports-centric networks that tend to drive up the cost of cable bundles. Sports fans and folks who care a lot about local TV will want to look elsewhere, but the rest of us will find Philo's bundles very appealing indeed: the smaller and larger bundles cost just $16 and $20 per month, respectively. You can test out Philo for free by clicking the link below.

PlayStation Vue may be named after a certain video game console, but Sony's skinny bundle isn't limited to the gaming set. PlayStation Vue will run like a dream on other platforms, too, including your Mac OS computer via an in-browser app. PlayStation Vue offers four different based packages arranged in tiers, from the cheapest and smallest (“Access,” $44.99 per month) up to larger and pricier options. You can test PlayStation Vue out for free by clicking on the link below and signing up for the service's free trial offer.

Sling TV is all about the add-ons. After grabbing a base package ($25 per month for either “Sling Orange” or “Sling Blue,” or $40 per month for both), build out the skinny bundle of your dreams by adding the “Extras” that you most desire. Want sports? “Sports Extra” ($5 per month) will give you sports, and nothing but sports. There's no need to pay for what you don't want to watch when you opt for Sling TV. You can check out your customized bundle for free by clicking the link below and signing up for Sling TV's free trial offer.

YouTube TV is Google's take on the live TV multichannel service. It streams dozens of channels for just $40 per month, and its in-browser app will work great on your Mac computer. You can check out YouTube TV for free for a week by taking advantage of the service's free trial offer — the link is below!

As you may already know, free over-the-air TV is the free TV that you can pick up with an antenna. Plug an antenna into your TV and presto: you'll have live feeds of local broadcast (over-the-air) stations, which may include ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, and more.

But there's no computer in that equation. So why are we talking about OTA TV here?

Because you can use a computer to bring your OTA TV to the next level. Just as there are PC TV tuners for PCs, there are Mac TV tuners. Buy one to give your Mac the power to interpret your antenna's signals! You can even use your computer as an OTA DVR.

Or, you can use a separate OTA DVR – like a Tablo, for instance – to make your OTA TV into streamable content that you can watch on your Mac.

If you're a huge fan of CBS shows, you'll want to consider CBS All Access. The $5.99-per-month service offers on-demand CBS content and – more importantly, for our purposes here – a way to watch live TV on an Apple computer. Subscribers in select markets will get a live feed of their local CBS station through their CBS All Access subscription. You can test out CBS All Access for free by taking advantage of the service's free trial offer.

It's not a skinny bundle, but MLB.TV is another great way to watch live TV on a Mac. It's the best of the league streaming services, which are run by major sports leagues and allow fans to watch live games as if they had cable. The catch: you'll only get games that are not on cable in your region, and you'll only get regular-seaosn matchups.

The NBA's version of the league streaming service works just as you'd expect. It offers single-team packages, plus a rarer feature: single-game packages, perfect for catching that one out-of-market game that you just don't want to miss.

The bad news: ESPN+ does not offer a live feed of ESPN or ESPN2. But it does offer live sports, so it's still a way to watch live TV on Mac. And it also has Major League Soccer's league streaming service, MLS Live, rolled right into it. Throw in lots of good on-demand content, and you have a pretty cool service. ESPN+ also offers a free trial.